


can't we just leave the monster alive?

by atannatek



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Alternate Universe - Space, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Mentions of Death, Park Jaehyung | Jae-centric, Space Stations, basically jae and youngk are impostors and the others are the crewmates, jae and younghyun are very clueless, jae is clueless, jae is whipped, wonpil is the cute/grumpy tech guy, wonpil is usually angry but i promise he has a reason, wonpil swears a lot, youngk is clueless, youngk is whipped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atannatek/pseuds/atannatek
Summary: younghyun says things are always easy for jae, but jae really doesn't think that when the tech guy keeps glaring at him like if he knew jae isn't who he's saying to be.(and also, there's the issue of jae and younghyun having to kill the rest of their crewmates for their identities not to be discovered...)
Relationships: Kang Younghyun | Young K/Yoon Dowoon, Kim Wonpil/Park Jaehyung | Jae
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. give the monster a name. he doesn't own one

**Author's Note:**

> i've played among us a lot these days i should have known something like this was coming.
> 
> the only warning i have for this one: mentions of killings and death, but there won't be any graphic descriptions of any of those situations.  
> also, jae's and youngk's attitudes might be weird but uh, well, they aren't humans here...? you'll catch that as you read.

Younghyun says things are always easy for Jae—and something that Jae has come to discover after all those years knowing him, is that Younghyun is usually right.

Because things are in fact _so_ easy as he and Younghyun sneak themselves into a ship that has just landed in the human populated part of the planet and as they change in a hurry their dirty clothes for humans' uniforms inside a small room from the ship. One of the uniforms is white and the other one is red. They are heavy in Jae’s hands as he holds them—Younghyun grabs the red one without a second thought, arguing that it’s a similar shade of his hair color so it would fit him better; and for a second, as Jae looks at Younghyun while he still holds the white uniform, Jae wants to tell him how things aren’t _always_ that easy for him as he had intended to choose the red uniform since they spotted the two humans walking on their way to the ship that were wearing them before and decided to kill them. But they’re just clothes and red isn’t even Jae’s favorite color, so he doesn’t exactly complain out loud about it, only making a comment when Younghyun points out that the white uniform has some stains of blood near the hem of the right sleeve.

Things are still easy even if Jae has to keep pulling down the cloth to his glove-covered hand so the blood stains are properly hidden.

(Younghyun tells him he looks stupid when he does that.

Jae offers to exchange uniforms.

Younghyun reminds him stupid is not an insult if your friend tells it to you.

Jae offers to exchange uniforms again.

Younghyun ignores him, mumbling something about another human approaching them as steeps can be heard outside.

Jae falls into a silence.

Three seconds later, Younghyun falls into a laugh, clearly not caring about the human that is coming.

Jae rolls his eyes, calling him a jerk —and that, _is_ an insult).

Younghyun is quickly pulling out a charming smile towards the shy guy who greets them when they exit the room (surely the human whose steeps they heard before). And the guy —who is wearing a blue version of Jae’s and Younghyun’s unform (Jae guesses that makes him one of their new crewmates and that the colors of the uniforms must have a special meaning then, though he can’t imagine what. The humans that he and Younghyun saw before from far have always been wearing similar variations of the uniform Jae is now using. Jae doesn't get why, though. The uniform is quite uncomfortable and so heavy)—, is also quickly blushing once he notices Younghyun’s smile is directed to him and not Jae (because Jae is standing next to Younghyun, so of course Younghyun is not smiling to him—Younghyun _did_ was laughing before at Jae’s failed attempt to convince him to change uniforms, but whatever, he isn’t smiling at Jae anymore, he is smiling at shy-red cheeks crewmate in the blue uniform).

“Oh, you must be the mechanic engineers” shy-red cheeks crewmate says. Jae and Younghyun exchange a look. That’s actually the first time they heard about it, and Jae has no idea of what does that even means, but he nods and Younghyun also does the same. Shy-red cheeks crewmate joins their nodding and Jae is confused at that—is it a human thing to copy each other’s gestures? Does that mean he should be blushing too like shy-red cheeks crewmate is doing right now?

Jae pinches both his cheeks with his left hand. He hopes that’s enough to make them look a bit like the ones of shy-red cheeks crewmate.

Then he notices that his ears are also red. Jae frowns. _How—?_

He pinches his ears this time. Shy-red cheeks crewmate frowns slightly at him for a second, though his attention is back at Younghyun as soon as Younghyun also starts pinching his own cheeks, surely understanding Jae’s realization.

“Right" shy-red cheeks cremate hawks, returning to his talk. "So, we lost all of our files during our last stop for a problem with the… Uh, locals” he scratches the back of his head. Shy-red cheeks crewmate has a deep voice that completely doesn’t fit his boyish features, which confuses Jae a bit, but he doesn't comment anything on it because he's seen more confusing things in his life before. "I'm sorry we couldn't pick you up from your station and make you come all the way here, but we didn't want to take uh, any risk. Was it a safe travel?"

Jae thinks in how Younghyun and him had been running before they spotted the ship landing. He thinks in the two humans they saw leaving their station. He thinks in how easy it was to kill them considering they were just humans—yeah, he can say it was a safe travel. It was easy; it keeps being easy.

Younghyun is still beaming at shy-red cheeks crewmate when he makes up a story about what he and Jae did on their way there while Jae keeps thinking in really how _easy_ the situation is becoming for them—the crewmates don't have any idea about the identities of the humans Younghyun and Jae killed. They can't suspect anything then.

Dowoon —that’s the name of shy-red cheeks crewmate, as Jae discovers after they’ve introduced themselves because it turns out they didn't even know the names of the dead humans and there wasn’t any trouble in Jae and Younghyun giving their real ones— only makes things even easier for them when he offers himself to give them a short tour around the ship. Apparently, the ship arrived to the planet with the purpose of meeting with two mechanic engineers that happened to live in the same planet as Younghyun and Jae—so, considering those two mechanic engineers are dead now, that somehow turns Younghyun and Jae into mechanic engineers, as Dowoon told them before, even if they are pretty much clueless in everything that involves ( _mechanic engineer…?_ What’s even that title?). But although they’re unfamiliar with the term, Younghyun’s smiles directed to Dowoon barely flinch as they walk next to the boy, with Dowoon’s cheeks only changing from red to a lighter red and Jae continuing pinching his own cheeks in order to keep it up with the human disguise he and Younghyun have decided to set up.

After being told about the places where they would sleep and their stations of work, Dowoon takes them to meet the rest of the people in the ship. 

(Their work stations are filled with things Jae has never seen before in his whole life, making him gulp, but as soon as Younghyun notices a change in his mood, he glances at him probably as a reminder for Jae about their plan—but still, Jae can’t hide the fact that he’s panicking and his eyes begin to itch over the feeling because he has no idea how he’s going to pretend to be a human _and_ a mechanic engineer at the same time if he doesn’t know what neither of that involves).

(Younghyun eyes are sharp over him.

Jae gulps again.

Dowoon keeps talking about the facilities of the ship, and how it may not be as fancy as others where Younghyun and Jae have worked before but—

Jae gulps _again_.

Dowoon glances at him this time.

Younghyun smiles.

Dowoon stops looking at Jae after that. He also stops talking about the facilities).

Turns out they aren’t as many humans in the ship as Jae and Younghyun had imagined in their worst scenario: a girl with long hair and purple uniform who is frowning at a screen and barely looks at them when Dowoon says their names (Dowoon calls her Munyeong. She doesn’t flinch at the mention of her name either), a guy in black uniform and whose name is Sungjin (he bows in their direction, with Jae and Younghyun quickly copying the gesture one before the other), a guy in green uniform who is wearing glasses called Minseok (he also bows at them—Jae and Younghyun discover that bowing must be part of a welcoming ritual of the humans), and a short girl with an orange uniform named Haewon and whose smile is even wider than Younghyun’s (and for some reason, Dowoon isn’t blushing at that like he did with them. Jae wonders what does that even mean).

Seven people in the ship, including Younghyun and Jae. Jae knows things will be easy since that instant.

“Uh, Wonpil hyung is missing” Dowoon adds once the presentations are over.

Jae and Younghyun exchange a look. Then it’s eight, not seven. Still easy, though.

Sungjin snorts, “He’s always missing.”

Jae frowns at that. Is it really common for the crewmates to get lost in the ship then? It partially makes sense, as the place is quite big and with many halls. That turns everything into something even easier as then no one would notice when someone is gone (hence killed by either Younghyun or him; preferably by Younghyun, he’s the one in the red uniform after all, and Jae already has to deal with the blood stains in a sleeve).

“I’m sorry!” a hurried voice blurts out from their back, coming from the entrance of the room. It’s another crewmate—Wonpil, Jae understands. His uniform is yellow, Jae’s favorite color, and his cheeks are as red as Dowoon’s were during their walk around the ship. Jae pinches his own cheeks almost automatically. “I… I was… I was finishing the scan of the reactor and… I promise I wasn’t asleep!”

He isn’t breathing correctly and his words are all mixed. This time, Younghyun is faster than Jae to imitate the human’s reaction, his chest moving up and down pretending to have problems breathing too.

Jae controls the urge of rolling his eyes before doing the same.

Wonpil frowns at them. He seems confused. Jae does his best to copy his expression.

“Are they the mechanical engineers—?” he asks, but his question is muted over the one of Haewon asking Jae and Younghyun if they’re okay.

Jae nods. Younghyun nods. And, for some reason, Dowoon nods.

Their three other crewmates are also frowning.

“They’ve probably haven’t been in a ship in a while” Munyeong says. She sounds bored.

“The air’s pressure?” Minseok suggests, looking at them.

Jae nods again. Younghyun nods again. And, for some reason, Dowoon nods again.

“Maybe we should take them to the kitchen garden. The oxygen’s quality is better there!” Haewon beams, looking at Wonpil like if that means something. Wonpil isn’t frowning anymore as soon as Haewon says that. He’s smiling, so Jae does the same; as bright as he can like Wonpil is doing (which is _ridiculously_ bright. _How—?_ ).

“Dowoon is taking them” Sungjin interferes. Jae glances at him, noticing how he’s looking at the screen that Munyeong was watching before. “And you need to go back to the reactor, Wonpil-ah. Whatever you thought you saw on that scan is wrong. Go and fix it and don’t take a nap this time.”

Wonpil whines, his smile being gone; and before Jae can imitate him, Dowoon is asking him and Younghyun to follow him.

Once they’re in the kitchen garden that Dowoon showed them before, Jae stares at his reflection in one of the crystal walls covering the small plants. Younghyun is talking to Dowoon in that moment, asking him about the other crewmembers, but Jae is barely putting attention to that even if he should also be interested in that information.

Jae discovers, after trying to smile like Wonpil did once again and exanimating his own image, that his smile isn’t near as bright was Wonpil’s was.

He needs to work on that.

Jae is practicing his smile in front of the mirror of his room when Younghyun enters, still wearing his red uniform.

(Jae isn’t wearing the white thing anymore—Dowoon got both of them new clothes to use when they aren’t working, after Younghyun lied about having had problems with “the locals” and losing their belongings.

Jae doesn’t even know what Younghyun meant with that, and he doubts Younghyun also knew it, but he had nodded, and Younghyun had done the same, and Dowoon too).

(It’s not like if they even had proper belongings before.

Well, Younghyun had a nice jacket and Jae an old book that he had read the enough times to have memorized some lines.

They had stolen both things).

"How are your eyes?" it's the first thing Younghyun asks, peeking around the room and not looking at him.

Jae should have asked him that first. He's older than Younghyun. He should be the one taking care of him, not the other way around like it has always seem to be.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Yours?" he ends up answering with a quiet voice, a grimace sneacking in his face. Younghyun can't notice it, too busy going through the row of white uniforms hanged in a closet in Jae's new room and the one that stands out among all, folded and hidden in the back.

Younghyun does look at him that time, a brow rose. "You're hidding it."

He didn't answer his question.

Jae hums in agreement, "I don't want anyone to find it and see the blood stain."

"Then don't wear it again."

"I wasn't planning to."

"It was easy then, right?" Younghyun is smirking. Jae rolls his eyes. "I told you things are always easy for you."

"Maybe the are" Jae mumbles only because he is aware that will please Younghyun.

It works—Younghyun is quickly beaming, walking away from the closet. It _always_ works. He knows Younghyun that well.

“Dowoon told me about the colors of the uniforms today” says Younghyun as he lays down over Jae’s bed. The sheets are white, similar to Jae’s uniforms. Jae wonders if that means that Younghyun’s dorm has red sheets then. He also wonders how he would look in his bed with his red hair and his red uniform—maybe too much red would be a funny thing. “It’s an easy way to indicate what we’re in charge of to avoid any confusions when they’re insertions to the ship like with us. Dowoon’s is blue because he works with numbers. Mine and yours are red and white because we work with machines. Apparently, you're supposed to design them and I'm supposed to build them.”

Jae nods. He has no idea what that means. When he asks Younghyun about it, his friend purses his lips in a grimace.

“I just know that Dowoon uses some formulas to make the ship work. That's why he's wearing blue” Younghyun continues. He isn’t looking at Jae anymore, his eyes having travelled to the ceiling of the room. “I’m going to ask him to teach me about them because apparently the numbers are really necessary for the ship.”

Younghyun has a good memory and he’s smart, but still, the detail makes Jae worry a bit.

Jae frowns, “What about the others?”

“Sungjin is the one in charge of the crew” Younghyun says. He yawns. “He makes reports to the people that sent them here and he makes sure everything is working correctly every day. Haewon and Minseok run the tests from the planets they visit because this is an exploration ship and they're the scientists. Apparently, they’ve been on a lot of places before. Dowoon told me his favorite one was the one where the sky was green and the earth was blue because he says it was so different from his home” another yawn. Jae wants to ask him to leave before he falls asleep in there, but he’s aware this conversation is mandatory as they need to know how are they going to continue with their plan, “Wonpil is a technician, so he fixes the things in the ship. Dowoon told me they’ve been having problems with the reactor in the past days, and that’s why they needed us. They want to make a new design of the engine of the reactor. Or something like that. He told me he didn’t know much about those topics” Jae’s eyes go wide at that—they have to pretend they know how to build something? “Munyeong is in charge of the defense system” Jae’s scared expression changes to one of disbelief. Even if Younghyun isn’t still looking at him, he snorts, “I know, I also though the same. Why even need weapons if this is only an exploration ship? Dowoon didn’t want to tell me, though” Younghyun is now sitting in the bed, his legs balancing over the edge as the mattress is set a few inches over the ground, very different to the pieces of fabric where Jae and him are used to sleep in. “I’ll ask him about it again tomorrow.”

“So, we have to learn how to do all of that?” Jae asks, lips pursed.

Younghyun bops his head, “If you think on it, we just have to learn how to do Dowoon’s and Wonpil’s tasks. The others ones won’t be important for us. Unless you want to continue with their research?”

“But we can’t kill them tonight” Jae points out, ignoring his small joke that wasn’t even funny. Younghyun moves his head again, “That isn’t something easy! What if they find out? We’re gonna get ourselves arrested.”

Younghyun scowls at him, “That’s why we’re going to do our best and learn everything we can in the next couple of days” Jae scoffs, “What? Things are always easy for you anyways. It wasn’t even you who got caught when we stole from Sungho, it was me!”

Jae scrunches his nose at the mention of that. Stealing from Sungho wasn’t their best idea. That’s what made them got into the ship after all—they would have died otherwise if they didn’t leave; Sungho would have made sure of that.

He turns to the mirror again. He doesn’t try smiling this time, though.

“Tomorrow I’m going to stick around Wonpil then” he says. He notices Younghyun standing up from the bed and walking in his direction. “And Dowoon is going to teach you about the numbers. We can handle this.”

There’s a hand in his shoulder. Jae looks at Younghyun’s sleeve—there isn’t any trace of blood in there. Jae wonders if someone would notice if there were some blood stains like in Jae’s uniform considering the shade of the color.

“Once we’re ready, we kill them” Younghyun mumbles. He gives a short smile to Jae—his isn’t either close to how bright it was the one of Wonpil. “For now, let’s just do our best and be two normal mechanical engineers who simply happen to want to know more about their crewmates’ tasks" he is looking at his eyes. Jae gets what he means with the gesture.

Jae sighs. He doesn’t mention anything out loud about having no idea what being a normal mechanical engineering means.

  
Wonpil doesn’t ask it immediately. Actually, it takes longer than what Jae had expected.

“Are you following me?”

He isn’t smiling when he questions Jae about that, so Jae doesn’t smile either (and he’s partially glad about the detail. Last night he tried practicing a bit more his smile in front of the mirror, but he was still so bad at it compared to Wonpil—not enough human alike, Jae guesses). 

Jae nods. He has indeed been following Wonpil around the ship after the breakfast that they had with their crewmates in the cafeteria of the ship. First, Wonpil went to one of the halls and spent around ten minutes fixing a wire panel on the wall. Then, when there was a problem with the lights in Munyeong’s work stage, he went to one room filled with more wires and worked in front of a metal box for other ten minutes.

(Jae was somewhat scared when Wonpil tripped back as sparks came out the metal box.

Wonpil cursed at the box.

Jae did the same).

Now, Wonpil is in the reactor room after Sungjin had announced from the loudspeakers of the ship that it wasn’t working correctly again, which means Jae is also in the reactor room, standing behind Wonpil and trying to see what he’s doing even if Wonpil’s back isn’t allowing him to peek correctly.

(Jae is unsure if sparks could also come from that big machine like it did with the metal box, so he prefers to keep his distance as apparently, sparks aren’t a nice signal for Wonpil).

“Why are you following me?” Wonpil continues asking. He’s sitting in the floor, legs crossed and with the hands inside the big machine, but he’s looking at Jae while he speaks. He seems confused, “You have your own work to do."

Jae knows how to answer that. He and Younghyun had both decided to use the same lie with both Dowoon and Wonpil: “I think what you do is really interesting, so I was wondering if I could learn about it.”

Wonpil blinks once, twice and a third time. Jae does the same.

They stare at each other.

Jae gulps even if Wonpil clearly doesn’t do it.

“You’re a mechanical engineer” Wonpil says. His nose is wrinkling as he speaks, “you don’t need to learn anything from a tech guy.”

He isn’t a mechanical engineer, and he needs to learn what Wonpil does with urgency.

Jae shakes his head, “But I want to.”

Wonpil also shakes his head. He curses again when the machine makes a strange sound, taking his arms out of it, “Sungjin hyung is going to be pissed if he discovers that you’re following me instead of working on the new engine design” he tells Jae. He’s still looking at him while he speaks. “You should focus on your own things. We all do that here and that’s why everything keeps working."

Jae shakes his head a second time, “I can do both. Younghyun says things are always easy for me.”

Wonpil squints at him, “Cool for you, but I don't care what Younghyun-ssi says" he finally returns his attention to the machine. "Stop following me. It makes me feel nervous and I have job to do.”

Jae nods even if Wonpil can't see him. His eyes don't itch yet, but he already starter feeling uncomfortable about them.

A couple of minutes before, Wonpil isn’t smiling either when he repeats the same sentence to Jae, who is still standing behind him. 

(Jae is glad about it again. He's sure he wouldn't have been able to smile like Wonpil anyways).

This time, Jae leaves the room.

“Did you make Dowoon feel nervous today?”

Younghyun raises a brow. They’ve been at their designed workplace for the past hour, though Younghyun has only been checking the strange devices in the room and Jae has been playing with the instruments they’re supposed to work with. He’s currently drawing a lame version of Younghyun’s face when he’s angry which Younghyun has already criticized twice (though Jae couldn’t care less about the ‘inaccurate nose and eyes proportion’ of his drawing).

“I don’t think so” Younghyun replies with a shrug. “He didn’t talk that much, but maybe it's because he wasn’t feeling well. His cheeks were all red again and now my cheeks hurt cause I had to keep pinching them. Maybe the air’s pressure of the ship can really affect humans.”

“Maybe that just happens to Dowoon” Jae hums, focused in his drawing, “Wonpil’s cheeks were okay when I was with him.”

Younghyun turns back at him. He was right—his reddish hair fits his red uniform. Jae sees that clearly under the intense white light of the room.

“Did you make Wonpil feel nervous?” he questions him, and Jae scoffs at the accusation. Younghyun whines at the lack of spoken answer, “Jae, we said we were going to act like normal mechanical engineers! Don’t make any of our crewmates feel nervous, you idiot!”

“That wasn’t my intention at all” Jae also complains. “I was being nice and following him wherever he went—”

Younghyun rolls his eyes, “Following him? Really?” Jae nods. “That’s not being nice, that’s being a total creep!”

Jae doesn’t get it.

“Weren’t you doing the same with Dowoon?”

Younghyun rolls his eyes again, “No. I told him what we agreed to say about their work being interesting and I asked him if I could hang with him for a while before coming to work here with you.”

Jae nods, “So, you asked him first.”

“Of course I did!”

Jae glances at the drawing he's just finished. Younghyun looks ugly on it but in real life he doesn't look ugly at all, his red uniform matching his red hair.

“I guess I can do that tomorrow then.”

Younghyun squints at him, “Wonpil’s struggling with getting the reactor fixed, right?” Jae nods. “The same reactor we’re supposed to work with” Jae nods again. Younghyun sighs, “Just ask him something about that thing and tell him you need the information for our job. And when he doesn’t think on you as a creep anymore, ask him about his tasks and actually learn something useful so we don’t die trying to drive this thing.”

Jae frowns, “He never used the word creep—”

“But you acted like one!” Younghyun interrupts him. “Be a normal mechanical engineer from now on, please.”

That night, Jae practices again his smile in front of the mirror in his dorm. He’s aware that Wonpil didn’t even smile once to him that day, but he should be ready in case tomorrow it’s different once he asks for his permission to be with him—Jae can’t allow himself to ruin everything for Younghyun and him just because he can’t manage to make Wonpil trust on him for something like not being able to smile as bright as him.

Jae smiles at his reflection again.

Still not as bright as Wonpil's.


	2. the rate of safety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this took soooo long, but uni was a nightmare for me:( luckily, now that i'm on mu winter break, i'll get the chance to update more often!

Jae wonders how many mechanical engineers Wonpil has known before him.

Jae also wonders if he disliked all of them like it seems to be the case with himself.

“What did you say you were doing now?” Jae asks Wonpil, trying to begin a small chat like Younghyun had advised him to do that morning—or rather threaten him about doing it; whatever that’s even the difference between both. If there’s even a difference. Surely there’s one. There _must_ definitely been one, but Jae is simply under a lot of stress to try to figure it out and his eyes are bothering him a little bit too much to worry about that other thing.

Wonpil glaring at him isn’t helping at all.

His stare is so, so intense. Jae doesn’t get how he smiled that brightly the day before when right now he’s doing that. It’s like if he were a whole different person.

Perhaps it’s something that has to do with Jae getting an official permission from Sungjin to accompany him to the reactor’s room.

(It had been rather simple, as many things in Jae’s life according to Younghyun:

Jae tried using the reactor excuse that Younghyun suggested with Wonpil when he saw him the next morning. Wonpil scowled and ignored him, muttering something like _‘stop fucking following me’_ when Jae started following him like the day before. Jae told Younghyun about it when they had lunch together. Younghyun scowled too. An hour later, he told him he had solved everything. Jae was confused. An hour and thirty minutes later, Sungjin went to their work station and frowned when he saw him there, asking him why wasn’t he with Wonpil if Younghyun had told him about his idea related to observing the reactor’s behavior to take into account in the new design. After that, Jae bowed like he had seen Dowoon do a couple of times before leaving and went to look for Wonpil, who was, in fact, in the reactor’s room.

Things stopped being simple when Wonpil admitted that Sungjin had told him about Younghyun’s suggestion too an hour and thirty minutes earlier. When Jae asked him about it, Wonpil had rolled his eyes. He seemed embarrassed, though.

“It’s not like I want us to die for you not getting the design right because I refuse to follow Sungjin’s commands” he said with a sigh. “I was planning just writing a report and dropping it to your work station later.”

Then, Jae asked him why bothering doing a report when he could go there like the other day.

Another sigh, “Having you here annoys me.”

 _See?_ Not simple at all anymore).

“It’s just a daily check to make sure this thing isn’t going to kill us today” Wonpil mutters after a while. His voice comes out so quiet that if Jae were human, he probably wouldn’t have been able to catch it. But luckily, he isn’t, so he nods, writing down in the notepad that he took from his new work station earlier _‘please remember to check the reactor once a day if you don’t want to die after running away not to die. Please, please’_. Wonpil scowls. He’s still looking in Jae’s direction, “Are you really writing everything that I say?”

Jae nods again, “I’m taking notes to study them later.”

Wonpil squints at him. Jae tries to return the look, though he knows he’s probably failing at it like he kept doing with the smile thing the night before. Wonpil’s gestures are quite hard to copy sometimes.

“I’m finishing this soon so you can leave me alone. That will give you plenty of time to study your notes today. Perfect, isn’t it?”

Jae cringes at the tone of voice.

Wonpil acting like that definitely has to do with Jae.

Jae nods a third time pretending he isn’t getting more stressed over the topic. Like if he could pull over another reaction of himself considering he’s only doing his best trying to learn how not to get Younghyun and himself killed after ideating that whole plan for scaping the planet to avoid getting themselves killed in a first instance—he wishes he could tell Wonpil exactly that, something between the lines of _‘sorry if I’m bothering you, but I’m trying to keep my friend and I alive?_ ’ and _‘sorry if I’m bothering you, but I’ll have to kill you later anyways because we need the ship, so can we technically call that leaving you alone…?’_. Would Wonpil even understand him after that? And, above all, would he stop making Jae feeling anxious and stressed?

(Jae knows Wonpil would freak out at the mention of being killed; Jae himself does that a little, but things have to be that way. It’s him and the other crewmates or Jae and Younghyun—and Jae _wants_ to live; he wants Younghyun to live too. And sure, Wonpil wants the same, but Jae has to put himself and Younghyun first. It’s all about surviving, and Jae is tired of having been playing the survival game for so long, but it’s what they’ve got and even now they have to deal with that).

Wonpil doesn’t wait an answer. When a loud _BEEP!_ echoes the room, he leans near a screen next to a big machine and peers at it for a long instant.

“Well, shit” he mutters. And for the way the words come out merely as a breath, maybe he doesn’t want Jae to listen to them. But it’s something impossible to ignore considering Jae’s senses are better than his. He turns to Jae, “Don’t write that down. Sungjin hyung hates when I swear. He thinks I’m a bad influence for Dowoon and you look exactly like the type of person to be a snitch so I’m warning you.”

Jae nods a fourth time. Wonpil scoffs, “Is that all you’re gonna do? Just stand there and write what I say and nod?”

Jae nods a fifth time. Wonpil is really stressing him out. He doesn’t mention that out loud.

“I don’t want to bother you” he decides to say something. “You told me I make you feel nervous, so I’m trying to act like if I weren’t here with you.”

Wonpil frowns, “I never said that.”

“You did” Jae insists, “Yesterday. We were here too.”

His frown turns into a big grimace of disgust and then into a scowl, “Is your memory always this good?”

He remembers it then. Jae wonders why he even lied at first place. It’s not like if it was something that important.

Jae shrugs, “Younghyun says things are always easy for me.”

Now, is Wonpil who nods. “I know. I remember you saying that yesterday. You’re not the only one with a good memory” Wonpil turns back to the monitor. He starts pressing buttons from the panel next to the monitor in quick movements that Jae is unable to follow with Wonpil’s head in the middle of it, “Sounds like bullshit for me, by the way.”

Jae wants to tell him that he thinks the same. If things were easy for Jae, he would be laying down in some nice place in his planet without worrying about getting killed because he had to steal for eating; definitely not sneaking in a human ship for the sake of his life and acting like if he willingly wanted to listen to Wonpil’s snarky comments.

He doesn’t do that.

“What did you just do?” Jae simply asks. “The monitor—”

Wonpil is looking at him again. He isn’t smiling. He’s frowning. Jae doubts he is ever going to see one of Wonpil’s smiles again so at least that detail relaxes him; Jae would ruing things then if he had to imitate him. Frowning is easy at least, and Wonpil frowns a lot around him.

“Oh, that” Wonpil moves so he can pick some of his tools, the weird instruments in a box similar to the ones that Jae and Younghyun have in their work station and that Younghyun keeps playing with while Jae draws. “I saved the results of the scan of today and uploaded to the system to compare them later.”

Jae writes that down, “But you also pressed lots of buttons.”

“Yes, I did" Wonpil sounds annoyed; he should be feeling that way. It's the same for Jae, "This ship is old and our computers are old too, so they’re mostly controlled manually.”

Silence. Wonpil finally finds what he was looking for and gets closer to the big machine in the room. He isn’t saying anything else.

“Exactly which buttons?” Jae tries again. Wonpil isn’t facing him, so Jae can’t imitate whatever expression he’s showing right now in an attempt to make things easier between them; more human, if that’s even an easier way to handle everything.

Wonpil stops his movements. He glances at Jae. He’s frowning, so Jae frowns back, “Why do you even need to know that? How I scan the reactor won’t be useful in no way to a new design. It’s just a basic scan, I swear. I’m not trying anything stupid here if that’s what you’re so worried about.”

Jae gulps. He blinks at the uncomfortable feeling of his eyes burning returning, “I’m curious.”

“Then go and check it on a book if you forgot it from your expensive classes” a scoff. “Something like _Scanning for dummies_? _One-hundred ways to scan the machines at your ship_? We have books like that in the ship, go serve yourself. I’m not here to be some sort of teacher for you. Sungjin hyung didn’t ask me to do that.”

Wonpil isn’t helping him. That is not easy—not easy in any way. And that’s bad. He doesn’t want him or Younghyun to end up being caught because he can’t convince Wonpil to explain him what he does.

But then Jae catches one thing from his speech: books. Wonpil mentioned books in the ship that could show him how to do his job. Jae feels like he can breathe again. If he and Younghyun get those books maybe they won’t need to stick around Wonpil and Dowoon anymore—things will be really easy then. It will all be over and for once in their lives, they will be able to sit down and rest without having to look at their backs.

“You’re right” Jae forces himself to say courtly. He doesn't smile because Wonpil isn't smiling, “I forgot about them. I’ll check those books. Can you tell me where are they, please?”

Wonpil raises a brow but shrugs, “I knew it was bullshit” he says as he starts working on something that Jae still can’t understand, “What Younghyun-ssi says about you. I don’t get why they insisted us so much to come for you if you don’t even remember the different forms to scan a reactor. That’s basic knowledge” with the tool he opens one side of the big machine, and similar like he did yesterday, he starts checking the inside of it, except that this time half of his body is in the machine. “Are you even sure you’re a real mechanical engineer or are you one of those weirdos who forge their degree because you’re actually stupid?”

Jae is wordless. His grab around the notepad gets tighter, and he’s glad there’s no way Wonpil is seeing him right now because he knows he would discover it then—that Jae is not human. He can feel the way his eyes are starting to glow. Like they do anytime he is way too overwhelmed with his feelings; like how they have been about to do since Wonpil began to make him feel anxious.

Jae feels embarrassed over that. His eyes haven’t glowed up like that since years ago. He and Younghyun eventually had to learn to control it if they didn’t want to be caught when they steal things and had to lie about not having been them—it _shouldn’t_ be happening then. Not even if Wonpil has just told him that and he feels dizzy over the probability of having been discovered.

But Wonpil can’t know about it—Dowoon said they lost their files. They didn’t even know the other humans’ names or how they looked like. No one knows anything; there’s no way they do. They can’t. Not now; not when Younghyun and Jae still haven’t figured out how to drive the ship. Not until they figure out how to solve everything.

Wonpil must be simply teasing him. He should be. It’s the only option.

 _Yeah_ , Jae almost tells him but he bites his tongue to remain quiet. He hopes Wonpil get that he’s gone considering his silence because even if it’s a mere joke, that’s a conversation that Jae doesn’t know how to handle at all—not with his thoughts in such a fuzzy state, not with his eyes glowing up. _It’s all bullshit, but it’s what I’ve got._

“Jae-ssi?” Wonpil questions, the upper part of his body still inside the machine. Jae remains quiet. “Okay, this is the type of shit you should be writing about. The copper wires won’t work. This thing burns them up in an instant. I changed them yesterday and they’re melting already, so scratch them out of your list if you considered them.”

Jae doesn’t say anything yet. He doesn’t dare to write that down, scared that Wonpil might listen to the sound of the pen and paper even if that’s not that much probable because of his awful human’s senses. He won’t risk himself like that, so he will simply write that down later. He wasn’t lying when he said he had a good memory.

Slowly, he gives a step in the door’s direction. Then another one. And another one.

“Jae-ssi?” Wonpil repeats. He isn’t moving either. Jae can’t see him anymore as he’s now facing the entrance of the room, but Wonpil’s voice is still muffled among the walls of the machine. “Fucking great. Sungjin hyung is going to get mad at me if the new reactor has copper wires and we all die because of that. I’ll just tell Jae-ssi that later when we have dinner. _Fucking great_ —”

Jae only closes his eyes once he’s left the room. He sits down there in the hall, his back pressed against the cold wall.

The burning feeling and the glow won’t go away unless he calms down.

Jae tries not to think on Younghyun even if all his happy memories involve him and happy memories are usually what it’s needed to calm down—no, he tries not to remember everything they have in their hands and how much he cares about Younghyun and how important it is for them to get this right. He tries to forget where he is and what he’s doing; what he’s supposed to do and what his horribly failing at.

He thinks in his book then; the one he no longer has with him but the words are stuck in his head so it’s easy to go through some of its parts and imagine he’s reading it for real. He tries to remember which was the last chapter he read; if it was near the end or at the beginning. If Younghyun was with him when he did, asking him to read out loud some part and if he said something about it. 

When he’s sure the burning feeling is gone, he opens his eyes.

Wonpil is next to the reactor’s room door, staring at him. Frowning.

Jae frowns back.

“Are you really meditating in the middle of your job?” Wonpil scoffs, shaking his head. “I was calling you inside” he gestures towards the room, “but I see you’re busy with your mental care routine.”

Jae doesn’t know how to answer that. As Wonpil is still frowning, he simply does the same.

Wonpil scoffs a second time. He looks exasperated. It’s easy for Jae to imitate him at that, “Don’t use copper cables or we will all die for your fault, you get that?” Jae nods. “Good. Then we’re done here.”

As soon as Wonpil is gone, Jae writes that down immediately. _NO COPPER WIRES!! OR WE WILL ALL DIE!!_

Then, he adds: _Get something that doesn’t melt. Copper wires melt down quickly. If they melt down, we will all die._

He stands up. His eyes are still aching and he blinks once and twice and three times before actually start going. He needs to find those books Wonpil mentioned because he has no idea what copper wires are and how to find a substitute for them, and if he doesn’t do that, they will all die. Wonpil said it.

Jae really doesn’t want Younghyun or himself to die.

Jae is already in their work station, sitting in front of one of the tables and surrounded my books and manuals, when Younghyun arrives.

“What are you doing?” Younghyun questions him. He’s beaming. He’s been doing that before entering to the room. Jae wonders how he even gets to smile that much while Jae’s eyes glowed that day over stress and anxiety at the thought of having been discovered by Wonpil.

He won’t tell him about that, though. Younghyun will get worried then and Jae doesn’t want that. It wouldn’t make sense to make him worry about something like a stupid joke from Wonpil anyways.

“I found some things to study” Jae points at the books. “Haewon helped me finding them, actually” he adds, remembering how the girl had told him about some old books she had seen when she bumped into a confused wandering Jae around the ship, “They were at her laboratory.”

Younghyun sits over the table, so his legs are balancing next to Jae’s body. The red of his uniforms is rather distracting, and Jae hits him so he can stop the movement because he needs to concentrate to read all those confusing terms. Younghyun kicks him in the shoulder. Jae pushes him again.

Younghyun kicks him one more time before opening one of the books, looking through it and humming.

And then the humming stops, “Jae. This isn’t the formula Dowoon taught me today.”

Jae frowns. He’s been frowning a lot that day, so the gesture comes naturally for him. Blame Wonpil. Blame Wonpil for everything—but that won’t last so long anymore; at least, not now that they have the books and they can teach themselves, “Maybe it’s a different one. That book has a lot of them. I figured it will be useful for you because of that.”

Yougnhyun scoffs, “It’s for the same thing. The spatial jump, but it’s not the same” he stops reading, examining the cover instead. “It looks old.”

“They’re old” Jae agrees. The frown doesn’t go away, “Haewon said they were in the ship when they arrived. Apparently, they were from the crew that used the ship before and they just put them in her laboratory because no one used them.”

Younghyun hums a second time.

Jae rolls his eyes, “What?”

A third hum.

Jae doesn't have to repeat the gesture for Younghyun to understand that he's getting impatient.

“What?”

Younghyun glances at him. From where he’s sitting, Jae has to move his head so he can return the look. Younghyun’s hair looks ridiculously bright under the white light.

“They’re old” he repeats.

Jae rolls his eyes again, “The ship is also old. Wonpil told me that today. I bet it will work anyways.”

Younghyun bites his lip, “Then why isn’t Dowoon using this instead?”

Jae doesn’t answer back immediately. For an instant, he doesn’t know what to say. All that he’s sure about is that Wonpil doesn’t like him and Jae doubts he can even learn everything he needs from him. And he needs to know everything in order not to die.

“Maybe there’re a lot of ways of doing things” he replies at the end. And he’s looking at Younghyun, and he hopes he can see a trace of glow in his eyes and understand that Jae is really frustrated.

But Younghyun doesn’t.

“I don’t think things are like that” at least Younghyun is smiling. Jae doesn’t copy the gesture, though—he’s not pretending to be a human right now; he’s simply pretending everything is fine. And luckily, those two actions are not the same. “We said we would do this for some days, and we arrived only yesterday.”

“But what if—”

“No one suspects anything” Younghyun interrupts him, “We’re safe. We can keep doing this for a few more days without any problem."

Jae thinks on Wonpil’s harsh words and then on his comment about Jae not being who he says he is— or rather on his joke about it; whatever that’s even the difference between both because just remembering it makes Jae flinch. If there’s even a difference. Surely there’s one. There _must_ definitely been one, but Jae is still under a lot of stress to try to figure it out and his eyes are bothering him a little bit too much again to worry about that.

He feels the same about both of them anyways.

“We’re safe” he repeats Younghyun’s words, pretending to agree with that no matter if Wonpil’s words keep bouncing inside his head a little bit too hard. And that, as always, pleases Younghyun.


End file.
